Philharmonic’s Sure-Fire Mahler

If you want to make a hit with Mahler’s tempestuous, gut-wrenching, ultimately triumphant Symphony No. 5, here’s a sure-fire way to do it. Get yourself a fine orchestra that knows the piece inside out, follow Mahler’s fantastically detailed instructions, keep the pace moving, try to avoid doing anything fussy and just enjoy the ride.

Basically, that’s what guest conductor Yakov Kreizberg did with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Leading the score from memory, Kreizberg let it run on schedule right down the middle of the tempo spectrum, letting the bursts of fury erupt naturally, patiently waiting out the passages of stasis. It helped that the Philharmonic plays the Mahler Fifth so beautifully and easily these days, with a unified string response that was almost unheard-of as recently as a decade ago. And sure enough, it got a standing ovation.

Yet this Mahler Fifth, as expertly performed as it was, didn’t drive you crazy or plunge you into its depths. It needed a more imaginative hand, one that could take Mahler at his word and push his music to even greater emotional extremes.

But Kreizberg did score one major point. He seems convinced that the Adagietto is truly Mahler’s musical love letter to his wife, Alma, not the doleful eulogy that it has become so often these days. So he chose a fast tempo at first, making it flow and sing with heart-melting ardor before slowing it way down toward the close as per Mahler’s instructions.

Mozart’s somber Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, was an appropriate preface for Mahler as Kreizberg’s leisurely, lush accompaniment blended into pianist Lars Vogt’s sometimes overly precious interpretation. For all of Vogt’s thoughtful searching, he didn’t find much.